John Chapter Six - August 15, 2008

Read Today's Passage

• I love John's account of the feeding of the people with bread and fish. It is the only place where we see Jesus deliberately testing a disciple's faith in the situation. How often does God ask us questions He already knows the answers to?
• Again Jesus withdraws by Himself from the crowd...
• Did Jesus tel His disciples to head to Capernaum by themselves, or did they do this on their own accord?
• The people go to look for Jesus when they realize that He did not get into the boat. Hmm... Could there be some symbolism here about people looking for Jesus where we expect Him to be and not finding Him because our expectations are so limited? Probably not in the original intention, but we can definitely draw that parallel.
• Jesus is not only living water to quench our thirst forever, but also bread to eat and be fulfilled. Notice the foreshadowing of the Last Supper between this chapter and Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman in chapter 4?
• I love how Jesus confuses the Jews utterly. They are unwilling to accept Him as who He says He is, so of course they will not understand what He is telling them. They want a miraculous sign, not a message. Reminds me of modern Americans today. Especially modern American Christians...
• Jesus again makes a hard statement that drives people away from Himself. Why do so many modern pastors and "Christians" say that the Christian life is easy, or that God will bless us physically here and now? Why is there such a call for universalism when the Truth is stated so clearly here? One way to eternal relationship with God, one way only. Hmm...

So what did you think?